Voices For Life

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. We cover issues from conception until natural death, as well as all family life issues.

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Senate Casts First Vote on Bill to Defund Planned Parenthood

By Steven ErteltLife News

The Senate will cast its first vote on Tuesday on legislation to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business. Republicans will find out tomorrow which of their members oppose moving forward on the bill that also repeals Obamacare.

The legislation has been pending for many weeks and even months as Republicans have been attempting to come up with a version that would please both conservative lawmakers as well as pro-abortion Republicans who are resistant to defunding the nation’s biggest abortion company.

The Senate will move forward on the bill to repeal Obamacare and defund the Planned Parenthood abortion company if they receive more than 50 votes tomorrow.

“The only way we’ll have an opportunity to consider ideas is if senators have an opportunity to offer and debate them and that means kicking off debate, it means voting to proceed,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday on the Senate floor. “And that will occur tomorrow [Tuesday].”

“When the vote comes up, I’ll keep my commitment to move beyond the failures of Obamacare,” McConnell said. “I will vote yes on the motion to proceed and I would urge all of my colleagues to do the same.”

The vote has been complicated by the absence of Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who is home after surgery to remove a blood clot, and was later diagnosed with brain cancer. McCain is expected to vote for defunding Planned Parenthood and repealing Obamacare if he is able to fly to Washington for the vote to proceed.

Also complicating efforts is the news that the Senate parliamentarian may have killed the Senate bill that would defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business and repeal Obamacare.

Senate Republicans have been using the reconciliation Bill to get around a filibuster by pro-abortion Democrats who oppose defunding the nation’s biggest abortion company and repealing prohibition Obamacare that has included taxpayer-financed abortions.

The parliamentarian issued guidance saying that key portions of the defunding measure require 60 votes to pass. That’s a departure from the ruling the parliamentarian issued in 2015 concerning the same bill to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood. The ruling then paved the way for a 50-vote passage and sending the bill to pro-abortion President Barack Obama, who vetoed it.